


Rinna's Mantra

by TheCacklingCrow



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age Origins
Genre: Coping, F/M, I imagine this sort of thing is how Zevran heals, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Rinna helps Zevran Cope, choking metaphor, drowning as a metaphor, nightmare turns to dream trope, past abuse aluded to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 01:13:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14727147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCacklingCrow/pseuds/TheCacklingCrow
Summary: Zevran's dreams are filled with anxiety. He can pretend he's fine all he wants during the day, thats harder for him to do in sleep. Somehow the memory of Rinna reaches from the fade to take him in her warm hands and calm him. One step at a time.





	Rinna's Mantra

**Author's Note:**

> This is a mantra Zevran recalls from when Rinna was still alive that turned into a dream. The mantra was used to calm themselves after severe training. As the question was asked one would slowly inhale. Then slowly exhale on 'breathe'

Zevran is stuck on his back, gasping for air and drowning in the dream. Rinna’s voice will reach through the panic. Calm and slow like a mantra. All the same her voice cuts through the thick heavy water closing in on all sides.

Her hands trace over his neck, fingers gentle as he chokes on nothing and her words soft. He's underwater, but it's not the water drowning him. It's grief. “Do you feel those hands around your throat? _Breathe._ They fall away. ” The muscles in his neck aren’t so tight anymore.

Rinna’s hands trace lower, over his racing heart. It’s trying to jump from his chest. “Do you feel the knives in your heart? _Breathe._ They fall away.“ His heart calms. The ache he had grown so used to being a constant feeling is no longer there.

Her hands trace from his heart to his lungs, trailing down his sides as he gasps for air. His lungs feel empty. “Do you feel the air pulled from your lungs? _Breathe._ They fill again.” She’s right. They do. Slowly the pain ebbs away and the gasping slows.

Her hands gently grasp the round of his shoulders, slowly, firmly pressing him down, then easing up as she speaks. "Do the demons hold you down until you can’t move? _Breathe._ Stand up again. “ She pulls him to his feet and he stands on shaking legs. The water is only two feet deep. He hadn’t noticed in the overwhelming panic. It had seemed fathoms deep like a great ocean with no bottom.

Her forehead presses to his own, sharing the air they breathe into each other. Hands on either side of his face and her dark fingertips lacing into the blonde hair at his temples. "Does your mind keep spinning? _Breathe._ It will slow. ” The frantic motion of his mind calms to something manageable. He can think clearly again.

She kisses his eyelids with a kindness he only remembers, one he desperately misses. “Do the terrors at night haunt you more than the demons of the day? _Breathe._ They will burn.” With her here, there is not fear but resolve.

She takes one of his hands and lifts his knuckles to her lips in a gentle hold. Dark lips press to the back of his hand. “Do your hands shake with your heart? _Breathe._ They will settle. ” He’s touched by the gesture in more ways than one. He’s used to being the one kissing knuckles. He’s enamored.

Her hands trail over his waist and lower to his backside, then around his thigh and up the front of his left leg. It’s not a sexual touch so much as intimate. The way the other touches are. “Does your skin crawl with the unwanted hands of others? _Breathe._ They are gone.” A caress of his hip and Zevran is reminded of himself.

Rinna’s lips brush against his and he misses her with all of his heart. Her words stern, but loving. “As long as you _breathe_ you can start again. You can keep going. **_Breathe._** ” Her hands shove him on his chest, and the Antivan wakes just as his back hits the ground.

Zevran gasps awake, taking in a heaping lung full of air. Seconds later he is calm. Simply because he can **_Breathe_** again.


End file.
